Comic book fans should already feel their spidey senses a’ tingling, because this week in home video belongs to a certain web-slinging superhero (Spider-Man 3)! Of course, we’re also amped for the second entry in Russia’s sci-fi horror Night Watch series (Day Watch), Don Cheadle’s latest (Talk To Me), a handful of great new docs (The Devil Came on Horseback, No End in Sight), and Angela Chase’s long-awaited return to DVD (My So-Called Life The Complete Series).
Tomatometer: 62%
Director Sam Raimi closes out his celebrated comic book trilogy with this week’s Spider-Man 3, in which our hero Peter Parker must battle not one, not two, but three deadly foes! This time around, Spidey’s got his hands full doing battle with the likes of Sandman, Venom, and his former pal Harry Osborn, which means tons of great CG effects and fight scenes — $250 million worth of visuals that might make this DVD worth peeping alone. As Raimi told us, Spider-Man 3 is perhaps best viewed in the awe-inspiring luxury of Blu-Ray; even in good, old fashioned regular DVD, you’ll enjoy an extras menu packed with cast and crew commentaries and bloopers. Spring for the special 2-disc edition for even more bonus material like villain featurettes, special effects featurettes, and lots, lots more.
Tomatometer: 81%
Following Reign Over Me with a movie featuring an equally compelling title, Don Cheadle stars in Talk to Me as Petey Greene, an ex-convict who rallies the community through his incendiary radio show. Though Talk to Me didn’t exactly set the box office on fire, now’s your chance to see Cheadle in another much-praised performance. The DVD features deleted scenes and two featurettes: one a look at how the filmmakers recreated 1960s Washington D.C., the other a comprehensive background on Greene.
Tomatometer: 65%
Night Watch. As Anton, now a veteran Night Watch operative, falls in love with his new trainee Svetlana — who may just be the most powerful Light Other yet — he finds himself a pawn in the looming war between good and evil. Director Timur Bekmambetov wowed audiences with spooky, inventive visuals in his previous installment, and ups the ante here with an even bigger budget, more daring special effects, and clever editing. A director commentary and insightful making-of featurette round out the release.
Tomatometer: 95%
Filmmakers recently have had an appetite to get their (and others’) thoughts on Iraq down on celluloid, and few of those films were met with more rapturous acclaim than the Certified Fresh No End in Sight. Charles Ferguson‘s documentary focuses not on the events leading up to the occupation, but the blunders that prevented the country from being the democratic beacon on the hill, as it was originally envisioned. Along with the film’s revealing footage of mid-level government employees and military officials painting a picture of what went wrong, special features includes deleted interviews and 11 more scenes, deepening this already comprehensive look at Iraq.
This Filthy World
Tomatometer: 100%
The irreverent cult director takes to the stage with his raunchy version of a stand-up routine in this well-received documentary.
The Devil Came on Horseback
Tomatometer: 97%
The ravages of genocide are unveiled in this riveting documentary following one man’s secret photographic tour of Darfur.
Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition
Tomatometer: N/A
David Lynch‘s groundbreaking series is available now in a ten-disc “definitive” edition! In exchange for just one Benjamin Franklin, you’ll get extras like both pilot episodes, deleted scenes, cast interviews, a documentary about the series, Kyle MacLachlan‘s SNL sketches and more.
My So-Called Life The Complete Series
Tomatometer: N/A
Whether you quietly pined for your own Jordan Catalano-type bad boy in high school, or were the nerdy Brian to someone else’s Angela Chase, it’s time you revisit the preeminent, if short-lived, teen drama now that it’s available again! At long last, angst is only a rental away.
Knowing is Half the Battle
In the Land of Women
Tomatometer: 44%
Adam Brody‘s first post-O.C. star turn failed to charm the critics, who found its weak story to be a major turn-off.
El Cantante
Tomatometer: 23%
The idea of a “vanity project” has rarely been so fulfilled as it is in this biopic of Nuyorican singer Hector Lavoe and his wife, Puchi (played obnoxiously by real life couple Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez).
License to Wed
Tomatometer: 8%
This comedy about a betrothed couple being put through a set of premarital challenges by their wacky minister (a typically broad Robin Williams) left critics invariably cold, to the tune of a single-digit Tomatometer.
Captivity
Tomatometer: 8%
The “torture porn” genre has many a detractor, but even horror hounds would rather face intolerable pain and certain death than watch this unclever mess.
Until next week, happy renting!
